thank you

a quick note before I go...

Tonight as I sat and listened while people prayed for me, I realized how much I need the prayers of others. Just as my life and my brain have been frantic and scattered these last weeks, so have my prayers been also. Having others clearly and succinctly pray for my needs was refreshing. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me, and I want to ask for continued prayers. There are a few specifics I can think of right now.

• Safe travel. Andy and I will be driving to El Paso tomorrow and then on to Pasadena on Tuesday.
• Smooth transitions. I will be experiencing a lot of new things over the next couple of weeks and having to take care of a lot of the business that comes with moving to a new state.
• Continued excitement for school. It will be a few weeks before I actually begin classes. I hope that the enthusiasm that I have about learning will continue once I begin that grind again.

I know there are things that I am leaving out, but I am incredibly thankful that there are people out there who are praying with me. Thank you all for loving me so much. I love you too!

the long goodbye

Two weeks of goodbyes. Who does this? It’s like seeing how slow you can pull off a band-aid. It began last Thursday with a going-away party at my grandmother’s house, where I said goodbye to my extended family. The night couldn’t quite prepare me for the gut check that would come the next day when I had to say goodbye to my sister. You see, not only am I about to move from Texas to California, but my sister has just moved to Cameroon, Africa. That’s right, Africa – across-the-ocean Africa, six-hour-time-difference Africa, not-part-of-the-Cingular-Nation Africa. And Ginger is not just my sister; she is my other half (not always necessarily better). We’ve lived together twenty of my twenty-three years, most of those sharing a room. While this was probably my hardest goodbye, it certainly is not my last.

This last week in Texas is a series of trips between my two homes, Nederland and College Station. I feel like there is so much to do in both places, but I don’t have enough time in either one. It also creates awkwardness with people not knowing exactly when will be the final goodbye. I'm like Steven from the Ben Folds Five song. I, however, know exactly when those final goodbyes will take place. Each one a painful hurdle to jump before I can start my new adventure. And that is where my focus needs to be. The ache from all of these lasts will soon be assuaged by the joy and excitement that will come with all of the firsts that are waiting for me in California.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
~ Seneca